Moon of Israel eBook

The Prince nodded his head and again was silent for
a while. Then he took his beautiful alabaster
cup, and pouring wine into it, he drank a little and
passed the cup to me.

“Drink also, Ana,” he said, “and
pledge me as I pledge you, in token that by decree
of the Creator who made the hearts of men, henceforward
our two hearts are as the same heart through good and
ill, through triumph and defeat, till death takes
one of us. Henceforward, Ana, unless you show
yourself unworthy, I hide no thought from you.”

Flushing with joy I took the cup, saying:

“I add to your words, O Prince. We are
one, not for this life alone but for all the lives
to be. Death, O Prince, is, I think, but a single
step in the pylon stair which leads at last to that
dizzy height whence we see the face of God and hear
his voice tell us what and why we are.”

Then I pledged him, and drank, bowing, and he bowed
back to me.

“What shall we do with the cup, Ana, the sacred
cup that has held this rich heart-wine? Shall
I keep it? No, it no longer belongs to me.
Shall I give it to you? No, it can never be yours
alone. See, we will break the priceless thing.”

Seizing it by its stem with all his strength he struck
the cup upon the table. Then what seemed to be
to me a marvel happened, for instead of shattering
as I thought it surely would, it split in two from
rim to foot. Whether this was by chance, or whether
the artist who fashioned it in some bygone generation
had worked the two halves separately and cunningly
cemented them together, to this hour I do not know.
At least so it befell.

“This is fortunate, Ana,” said the Prince,
laughing a little in his light way. “Now
take you the half that lies nearest to you and I will
take mine. If you die first I will lay my half
upon your breast, and if I die first you shall do
the same by me, or if the priests forbid it because
I am royal and may not be profaned, cast the thing
into my tomb. What should we have done had the
alabaster shattered into fragments, Ana, and what
omen should we have read in them?”

“Why ask, O Prince, seeing that it has befallen
otherwise?”

Then I took my half, laid it against my forehead and
hid it in the bosom of my robe, and as I did, so did
Seti.

So in this strange fashion the royal Seti and I sealed
the holy compact of our brotherhood, as I think not
for the first time or the last.

CHAPTER III

USERTI

Seti rose, stretching out his arms.

“That is finished,” he said, “as
everything finishes, and for once I am sorry.
Now what next? Sleep, I suppose, in which all
ends, or perhaps you would say all begins.”

As he spoke the curtains at the end of the room were
drawn and between them appeared the chamberlain, Pambasa,
holding his gold-tipped wand ceremoniously before
him.